The BBC will unveil its international line-up of pundits, including Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor and German World Cup winner Jurgen Klinsmann, on Thursday week. But O’Neill, whose candour and enthusiasm made him a popular member of the panel at the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008, will not be among them.

Last year’s departure of his close friend, BBC head of football Niall Sloane, to become ITV head of sport left O’Neill with a dilemma for this summer’s beanfeast.

The Villa manager, whose future at the club will be decided in the summer following talks with owner Randy Lerner, is believed to feel loyalty to the BBC — but reluctant to work in direct competition with fellow Ulsterman Sloane.

As the first anniversary of ‘Bloodgate’ looms, eyebrows have been raised about the relationship between Harlequins and their disgraced former director of rugby, Dean Richards (right), who collected a three-year ban from rugby for his role in the fake blood fiasco.

New director of rugby Conor O’Shea admits speaking to Richards about the club before taking the job, while in an interview with chairman Malcolm Wall last week, it was disclosed that Richards was still in regular contact with chief executive Mark Evans.

While the ERC accept that they cannot stop people talking to each other, steps to uphold the spirit of Richards’s ban from the game could yet be taken.

Which could prove awkward at the eve of Heineken Cup dinner, when a certain Dean Richards is — incredibly — on the short list for the Best Coach award.

Hoy and Co may miss the Commonwealth

Britain's top cyclists, including Victoria Pendleton and Sir Chris Hoy, may become the latest athletes to pull out of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi next October.

The Olympic gold medalists and their team-mates face a dilemma over supporting the Commonwealth showpiece or taking part in a newly created European senior championships in Poland, which offers important qualifying points for the 2012 Games in London.

Pendleton, keen to defend her sprint title while representing England in India, said: ‘There’s going to be a completely different ranking points programme in the run-up to London, which means we need to attend more World Cups and, quite possibly, these European Championships. It’s up in the air at the moment and I’d be disappointed if I don’t go to the Commonwealths. But if I’m faced with a choice between the Commonwealths and a European Championships that will go some way to ensuring I compete in 2012 then it will have to be the Europeans.’

England centre Riki Flutey looks likely to miss the June tour to Australia because he needs more surgery on his troublesome right shoulder.

News that the 30-year-old is still not over the injury he first sustained while playing for London Wasps last season will not help his bid for a swift return to the Guinness Premiership after just one far from fulfilling season with French club Brive.

England manager Martin Johnson is aware of Flutey’s condition and has all but ruled his first-choice inside centre out of the trip Down Under.

Although Flutey is halfway through a two-year contract that Brive expect him to honour, a series of clubs led by his old team, Wasps, have appeared keen to have him back in England. Whether the news of his continuing shoulder problem now puts them off remains to be seen.